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TRS, BJP conflict escalates into full-blown war
In the last one month, the political atmosphere in Telangana witnessed a lot of heat and storm with the central and the state governments unleashing their investigating agencies targeting the ruling TRS leaders in the state and the BJP leaders at the central-level respectively.
With less than a year left for the assembly elections in Telangana, the political slugfest between Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Bharatiya Janata Party has now turned into a full-blown war between the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led state government and the Narendra Modi-led central government.
In the last one month, the political atmosphere in Telangana witnessed a lot of heat and storm with the central and the state governments unleashing their investigating agencies targeting the ruling TRS leaders in the state and the BJP leaders at the central-level respectively.
It was, in fact, the BJP which had first blown the war bugle. The saffron party emerged as a major political force in the state after winning by-elections to Dubbak and Huzurabad assembly elections. Not only this, the BJP managed to put up an impressive show in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections and in the recently concluded by-elections to Munugode assembly seat. The saffron party has now set its eyes on capturing power in 2023 assembly elections.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders claimed that the BJP government at the Centre targeted the financial roots of the party by initiating Income Tax raids on a select real estate and infrastructure companies believed to be close to the ruling party in August.
Around the same time, the Enforcement Department authorities also targeted a few TRS leaders who were supposedly involved in an alleged money laundering case. The leaders had allegedly invested in casino games being operated by Chikoti Praveen. The ED grilled a couple of TRS MLAs and other leaders who participated in his casino parties.
The investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into the Delhi liquor policy scandal also came as a major irritant for the TRS. While the BJP leaders in Delhi dragged the name of KCR’s daughter and TRS lawmaker Kalvakuntla Kavitha into the scam, the CBI and ED conducted a series of raids on offices and residences of Hyderabad-based liquor manufacturer Ramachandra Pillai and his associates. Kavitha had denied her role in Delhi excise policy.
The emergence of BJP as a major political force in Telangana in the last one year, posing a threat to K Chandrashekar Rao’s ambition of returning to power for the third successive term in the next elections, has forced the TRS supremo to take an aggressive posture against the BJP. He launched a no-holds-barred attack on the saffron party by directly targeting the Narendra Modi government.
Apart from launching a massive propaganda campaign and taking up a series of agitations against the Centre, KCR went a step ahead and announced his entry into national politics by rechristening his party TRS as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
Days ahead of the by-elections in Munugode, the KCR government came up with what it called the “sensational” expose of the BJP attempting to poach four of the TRS MLAs. Three people, who claimed to have closer links with the BJP bigwigs in Delhi, were arrested following a sting operation by the Telangana police.
The chief minister himself released the video clippings of the operation to the media, alleging that the BJP at the Centre was trying to destabilise the governments in the opposition-ruled states.
The BJP had to certainly go on the backfoot and it tried to challenge the case in the high court and Supreme Court, but in vain.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the KCR government to probe the poaching issue, even brought to the fore names of BJP national general secretary B L Santhosh and its Kerala leader Tushar Vellapally in the episode.
The state government also ordered raids by the officials of the commercial tax department on the infrastructure company promoted by BJP leader Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy on the charges of evasion of GST.
These developments prompted the Centre to launch a counter-offensive against the TRS government. The ED conducted a series of raids on the TRS leaders like Gangula Kamalakar and Vaddiraju Ravichandra in connection with alleged irregularities in granite exports.
The latest raids by the Income Tax authorities on the residences and institutions run by state labour minister Ch Malla Reddy only escalated the tension between the TRS and the BJP.
“Both the sides are adopting a hostile and no-holds-barred approach towards each other ahead of the next elections. There is no thaw in sight, with a near total breakdown in communications,” said political analyst Sriram Karri.
The hostility displayed by the Telangana government towards governor Tamilisai Soundarrajan and her decision to withhold the crucial bills passed by the Telangana government have taken the confrontation to a new high. “The chief minister completely avoiding meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi whenever he came to the state is the height of hostility,” he said.
The TRS government has also withdrawn permission to the CBI to conduct any investigations in the state. A senior TRS leader said that the government is also contemplating giving more teeth to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to target the central government officials to embarrass the Centre.
Another political analyst Ramu Suravajjula said the blatant misuse of the state police forces and the central investigation agencies by the state and the Centre respectively is sending a wrong signal to the public.
“This mad political fight between the TRS and the BJP is causing great harm to the public institutions. The government arms that are being used by the both governments have lost credibility in the public,” Suravajjula said.
